China reduces sentence of journalist to 5 years from 7

BEIJING (AP) — An imprisoned 71-year-old Chinese journalist has had her sentence reduced to five years from seven following an appeal, her lawyer said Thursday.

Gao Yu appealed her April conviction for leaking state secrets at a closed hearing on Tuesday at Beijing's high court. Her lawyer Shang Baojun said the court announced Thursday that her sentence would be reduced.

Gao was convicted of sharing with an overseas news magazine a document detailing the Communist Party leadership's resolve to aggressively target constitutionality, press freedoms and groups that seek to change society but operate outside the party.

The magazine, Mingjing News, has said Gao did not provide the document, and her lawyers said they presented evidence that Gao was not the source of the report at the appeal.

Foreign governments and human rights groups have denounced the verdict again Gao as politically driven and urged authorities to release the elderly journalist, who is in poor health with heart problems.

The journalist's brother, Gao Wei, said after the appeal verdict that he wished the court had overturned the conviction and set her free.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-11-26

I wonder what China would have done with somebody like Snowden! LOL Oh right, they welcomed him with open arms and wouldn't send him back to the US.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/06/10/mixed-emotions-online-as-hero-snowden-shows-up-in-hong-kong/

Talk about hypocrites.

Craig, call me widly speculative, but I think the U.S. would happily give refuge to any Chinese citizens who stole Chinese state secrets! Would that be hypocritical?

Craig, call me widly speculative, but I think the U.S. would happily give refuge to any Chinese citizens who stole Chinese state secrets! Would that be hypocritical?

Agreed. But there's a huge difference between human rights activists and those who store state secrets. The US does repatriate criminals to China. Doesn't seem China does the same....

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1859321/us-government-forcibly-repatriates-first-chinese

Beijing's most wanted: US repatriates one of the leading 'Sky Net' fugitives days before Xi Jinping's visit

Issues relating to sending "criminals" back to China:

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/11/us-china-to-discuss-repatriation-of-chinese-fugitives.html

The issue is a thorny one, as no extradition treaty exists between the U.S. and China. That has made America, and other countries such as Australia and Canada, attractive destinations for Chinese officials fleeing the country and a haven for the assets they have allegedly stolen.

Western governments have long been reluctant to hand over suspects because of a lack of transparency and due process in China’s judicial system. International human rights groups say torture is used as a tool for extracting confessions in Chinese interrogations. Government officials convicted of corruption have been sentenced to death.